Chennai, Feb 6 (IANS): England captain Joe Root proved that he belonged to the same category as India captain Virat Kohli, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, and Australia's Joe Root by scoring a century in his 100th Test, said former England skipper Nasser Hussain on Friday.

Root on Friday scored his third consecutive century in Test matches to get England off to a strong start in the first Test against India at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here.

"It's fitting that Joe Root proved he's a true great by scoring a hundred in his 100th Test. Some people were starting to doubt if he belongs to that group of Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, and Steve Smith when he went through a lean patch last year -- but don't forget he was still averaging 40 in that period!" Hussain wrote in his column for Sky Sports.

"During the long break enforced by lockdown and the pandemic he thought 'how am I going to go back to being the Joe Root that I was?' He watched videos of various people and looked at his game and three hundreds in a row suggests he's analysed his game pretty well!"

The first of the hat-trick of centuries that Root has scored in the past two months came in the first Test in England's last Test series in Sri Lanka on January 22. It was Root's first century in the longest format of the game since November 2019. He went on to score 228 in that innings and followed that up with a 186 in the second Test. In Chennai, Root was unbeaten on 128 at the end of the first day.